Joe Custer is an American motorsport executive and a longtime confidant of team owner Gene Haas. He serves as Chief Operating Officer of the Haas F1 Team and, since 2025, as president of the Haas Factory Team in NASCAR. ¹²

Stewart-Haas Racing

Custer built his reputation as a senior leader at NASCAR's Stewart-Haas Racing, the Cup Series team co-owned by Gene Haas and Tony Stewart, where he was widely described as the man running the day-to-day operation. He held executive titles including vice president and later co-president, and was part of the leadership through the organisation's most successful era — including Kevin Harvick's 2014 NASCAR Cup Series championship in the No. 4 car. He remained co-president through a 2022 organisational restructuring. ¹²

“Joe Custer is an American motorsport executive and a longtime confidant of team owner Gene Haas.”

Haas F1 Team

As a trusted Gene Haas lieutenant, Custer serves as Chief Operating Officer of the Haas F1 Team, part of the ownership-level structure overseeing the Formula 1 operation alongside its racing leadership under Ayao Komatsu. ²

Haas Factory Team

When Stewart-Haas Racing wound down at the end of 2024, Gene Haas retained one NASCAR charter and reorganised the operation as the wholly owned Haas Factory Team, announced in June 2024 with Custer installed as team president. The team debuted in 2025, running a full-time Cup Series entry in the No. 41 car driven by Custer's son, Cole Custer, from a Kannapolis, North Carolina base alongside the sister Haas F1 operation. ¹³

Bottom line

Custer is a veteran NASCAR operations executive and one of Gene Haas's closest associates, bridging the owner's American stock-car roots and his Formula 1 ambitions as COO of the Haas F1 Team and president of its NASCAR sister operation. ¹²